Microbial gum is one of the important sources of gums. Microbial gums obtained by fermentation can be used in many aspects, like food additives. As a new kind of microbial gum, gellan gum has been paid more and more attention.
Most of the existing processes for producing gellan gum are carried out by batch fermentation, and organic nitrogen sources, such as insoluble soybean powder, are normally used to control production rate of strains because of the slow-release nitrogen therein. However, insolubility and unstable quality of the soybean powder can cause variations in fermentation process, so quality of the final products is not stable. On the other hand, inorganic nitrogen sources, such as aqueous ammonia or NH4Cl, usually cause low production rate in batch fermentation and thus are not suitable for industrial application.
Therefore, a new fermentation process for producing gellan gum is desirable.